Hand in Hand
by zhakeena
Summary: (AU) 'Kingdom Hearts' is but a movie, and Sora is just another actor. But what happens if the movie itself comes to life? Will Sora follow the script, or use his free will to change the story?
1. Mistakes

**Hand in Hand**

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all its characters belong to Square-Enix. The concept of the fic belongs to me; any similarities to another is a very weird coincidence. 

Pre-story note: I hope this won't be so corny. *sobs*

__________________________

"They'll keep coming after you." 

Sora, confused, looked over to the owner of the voice. 

"And they'll keep coming after you… as long as you wield the Keyblade," explained the stranger, pointing somewhat accusingly at the giant key that the boy was holding. 

Sora raised a questioning eyebrow at him and let himself be annoyed with the man's next line: "But why… why would it choose a kid like you?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Sora snapped. 

"Hmph. Anyway, let's see that Keyblade…" the man said, approaching Sora slowly, reaching out for the Keyblade. 

Sora posed a fighting stance. "What?! There's no way you're gettin' this!" he screamed, ready to fight. 

"Very well, have it your way…" the man said, swinging a large gun-sword hybrid that he seemed to have gotten out of nowhere. 

The man was pretty slow, but his attacks were devastating. The first thing he did to Sora was to cast Fire, then a heavy swing that depleted most of his energy. Sora ran away scared, running up the stairs next to the accessory shop. The man went after him, almost knocking the boy out, but then Sora's ankle twisted, and he fell down the stairs, falling on the man with the gunblade, causing him to curse out loud in a censored manner… 

The director sighed, rubbed his head and frustratingly said, "Cut" through his megaphone. Sora quickly stood up and mumbled, "Sorry…" to Leon, the man with the gunblade. 

Leon grumbled and went off-screen to dust himself.

Sora rubbed the back of his head before doing the same as Leon, and going over to Riku, who was laughing at him smugly. 

"Ha-hah! Sora, that was priceless! Leon looked so bad-ass before you both fell down…" Riku told the annoyed Sora. "Oh yeah, I am _definitely _gonna ask for a bloopers section!"

"Shut-up, Riku. I wish that the designers didn't have me wearing these big things…" Sora mumbled, pointing to his oversized yellow shoes. 

"At least your costume's kinda decent. Look at these things," Riku said, pointing out his ankle belts. "I don't see the practicality; I mean, what are they for, so that my ankles wouldn't fall off? And this yellow shirt? With this hair?" 

Sora sighed, leaning against the wall like Riku is. "Man, let's face it. We have lame costumes…" 

"Not me, I like mine!" Kairi piped up suddenly, walking towards the two of them. "Hey, Sora, you alright? That fall looked nasty…" 

"Yeah, I'm fine, Kairi. But I don't think I'd like to work with Leon again. At least, not today," Sora said, looking down. "Man, that was embarrassing." 

"And in your debut film, too." Riku added, poking Sora at the ribs. Sora elbowed him in response. 

"Cheer up, Sora. You're bound to make _a lot_ of mistakes at this point. But I gotta congratulate you, cuz you made Leon say 'f***ing s***' again, besides Yuffie!" Kairi said cheerfully. 

Before Sora could reply, the director said, "Okay, I think this is the time for a break, so everyone, be back here in… let's say, 30 minutes?" 

Riku yawned and hopped up. "Well, I'm getting myself a donut or something… you guys coming?" he asked Sora and Kairi. 

"I'm gonna mope here some more…" Sora replied.

"Hee! No thanks, Riku. I'll just wait for the break to finish." Kairi said. 

"Okay. I better go before Wakka eats all of the grub," Riku said, waving to them. 

A few minutes after he left, Kairi stared at Sora, waiting for him to speak up. Sora sighed. 

"Kairi…" 

"Yeah?" 

"Do you think I'll ever be as good as my parents are?" Sora asked, looking across the room, where his parents were eating donuts with Yuffie and Cid. 

Kairi looked over to where Sora was looking: Cloud and Aerith. "Well, with that attitude, you won't. But… I guess being the kid of two actors must be hard, huh?" asked Kairi. 

"Yeah… everyone expects me to do well. Acting really isn't my thing, I'm more of the sports type of kid, but people keep thinking that talent runs through the bloodline. And it doesn't…" Sora sighed. "And I never really liked movies, I guess. Even though the story's good, and even though the characters seem so real… you still know everything's scripted. It's like the people in the movie do not have free will. And it sucks."

Kairi looked at Sora and thought about what he said. Who knew that Sora would say something so thought-provoking? "So, why'd you accept this role?" she asked. 

"I dunno. I had nothing else to do," Sora answered. 

"That's lame." 

"Yeah, I know. Now I'm stuck with this job," Sora said. "You know what, those donuts look good. Let's go join Riku, huh?" Sora said, offering his hand. 

"Okay!" Kairi took Sora's hand, and they both ran towards the donut table. They ran harder when they saw Wakka, Tidus and Selphie running there, too.

__________________________

"Well, that's it for today, people. See you all early tomorrow, still here in Traverse Town. We have to finish all the scenes here before we could move along…" the director said, and everybody started leaving. 

Sora removed the oversized yellow shoes, thankful that his feet would be free of those things for at least a few hours. As he was sitting down, he felt someone sit next to him. 

"Oh! Hey, mom," Sora said, looking up to his mother's face. 

Aerith smiled at him. "So, feeling better now?" 

"Yeah, just a bit tired…" Sora replied. 

Aerith nodded. "Well, we were planning to eat out… You know, at your Aunt Tifa's 7th Heaven? You feeling up to it?" 

Sora smiled. A bit. It had been a while since he saw Tifa. He thought she was neat (especially since she taught him a lot of martial arts moves—helpful in this role he's playing right now). "Sounds good! Can Riku and Kairi come, too?" 

"Sure! Go get Riku and Kairi, and we'll get Cid to drive us there." 

"No limo?" 

"You know, the 7th Heaven is a small place. We have to blend in." 

Sora thought, "Oh yeah, a limo will send all the fans to go and harass everyone but me…" 

"You know what, Mom? The 7th Heaven isn't that far. The three of us will just walk. You go ahead," Sora said. 

"Uh… okay? Just be careful," Aerith said, kissing Sora's cheek and going over to Cloud. 

__________________________

Back in their normal clothes (Kairi was still wearing a spaghetti-strap shirt, but with pants; Riku's in an all-black attire; Sora's wearing wearing a shirt, pants and normal-sized shoes), the three starlets walked towards the 7th Heaven. 

"Hey, look over there, you guys!" Sora said, pointing to a very graffiti'd wall.

"Whoa," Riku said, looking at the image up and down. "What do you know?" 

Kairi touched the graffiti, which was the image of the Heartless symbol. "Looks like the movie has fans already…" 

"You gotta admit, the guy who did that must be a pro. Look at the details," Sora pointed out, touching the spray-painted wall itself. 

Then, underneath his hand, the image glowed. 

"WHOA!" Sora screamed. Riku and Kairi gasped. 

A few moments of silence. 

"Well, we better go." Riku said plainly, and the three of them moved as fast as they could. 

____________________

Author's notes: This is my first time to write an AU or a KH fic. So, how did I do? =) This was longer than I planned…

Just some points I'd like to point out: 

1) I know nothing about filmmaking; 

2) I need a script on KH! Just in case any scenes like the Leon one would be written again. Do you know where to find one?

3) Any hints of OOC? Well, that would be fixed in the later chapters, wherein the characters we all know and love from Kingdom Hearts the GAME would star in the fic. What I mean by that is, the KH story will somehow find its way to this one (with all the Heartless and all.)

4) I've a feeling that the story will be complicated (and long), and the plot will be confusing. So I'm challenging everyone with enough brainpower and patience to take the time to read this! 

5) Yeah, like any other Cloud/Aerith fan, I made them Sora's parents. So kill me. Of course, they have to be a bit more older in this part of the story. 

Okay, that's it! Please leave a review. Of course, at this point, the story would be blurry, but I'll try to get the 2nd chapter done, and hopefully that would make the story a bit clearer. If you have any criticisms to say ('This was laaaaaame.'), justify your comment and we'll get along. :-) Flames of course will make me feel bad, but I'm not stopping ye. I just wish I'll continue this. I have a bad habit of not finishing fics.

That's all, dear readers. Toodles. 


	2. Into the Abyss

**Hand in Hand**

Disclaimer: No amount of fic-writing nor pleading with the gods will get me to own Kingdom Hearts. Still they are Square-Enix's and Disney's. I guess. What else… Title of fic is taken from one of the songs in the KH soundtrack. Pre-story note: Started this a few minutes after I posted the first chapter. Baah. -_-

Some hints of Final Fantasy 7 here, too. :)

**Chapter II: Into the Abyss**

________________

"Burp," Sora proclaimed to the whole 7th Heaven, rubbing his tummy. "That was good…" 

"Ew! Sora, you're disgusting!" Kairi laughed out loud. Riku burped even louder. 

"At least we know they enjoyed the meal," Tifa said, walking towards the table. "So, is everybody happy?" 

"Tifa, as always, your cooking is superb," Aerith said. "Right everyone?" 

"Yeah, Teef," Cloud said, and everybody else mumbled in approval. 

"Well, I'm glad," Tifa said cheerfully. "So, do you guys still have the time to hang-out here? It's been a while since we talked." 

"Yeah, been a while since I talked to that $%^#@!, Barret… he works with you, right?" asked Cid with a toothpick through his pearly whites. 

"Ya foo'! I was the one who cooked that ferret ya ate!" said Barret, a very large black man with a gun on his arm.

"$#(%#*($(!!!" Cid screamed. Everybody laughed. 

"Uh… Mom? Dad?" Cloud and Aerith looked over to Sora. "Can Kairi, Riku and me go out for a short walk, or something? Just to digest what we ate?" Then, without waiting for an answer, Sora grabbed Riku and Kairi's arms and dragged them towards the entrance/exit.

Riku nudged Sora. "Why, what's wrong with staying here?" he whispered. 

"Cid and Barret are both here. You wanna hang around them?" Sora whispered back, pointing to the two grown-ups laughing and cussing at each other. 

"Ooh. Ya gotta point," Kairi said, and the three of them went out. 

________________

For some strange reason, none of them heard the rain from the inside of the restaurant. 

"Geez, it's kinda hard. I wonder why we didn't hear it?" Riku said, putting on his jacket's hood. Sora did the same, while Kairi got an umbrella from somewhere. 

"I guess none of us has any intention of going back there," Sora thought.

After walking some distance, Kairi stopped.

"I wonder why there aren't any people or anything here. The neon lights are pretty, though," Kairi said, staring up at the glowing neon signs all over the place. 

"Yeah. Pretty…" Sora said, staring up, too. 

The three of them stood there in silence for a while. 

"Uh, you guys, I think we'd better get going before we drown here," Riku said, walking on the wet sidewalks. 

Sora and Kairi made a move to follow him, until Riku stopped in his tracks. 

"Riku? What's wrong?" Sora said, running towards him. Kairi followed. 

Riku shook his head. "I just thought… I saw something weird. I think maybe it's a cat or something. It hid in the shadows over there…" he pointed towards an alley. 

"Let it be. It was a stray, and it's wet so it went there to look for shelter," Sora said. 

"Are you sure? I think I see something glowing there…" Kairi said, staring frighteningly at something in the alley. 

Sure enough, when the two turned to look again, there were pairs of yellow, glowing eyes sprouting pair by pair, one by one. Before anybody could make a move, one of the pairs of eyes tackled Riku. Sora and Kairi tried to help him, but then more of the ant-like things started attacking them both. 

"What ARE these?!" Kairi screamed. Sora shuddered, thinking how those things are similar to the Heartless in Kingdom Hearts… 

But they're computer generated! Sora punched one away from him and Kairi. Definitely solid, he thought. 

What's going on?

"What the hell?!" Riku screamed, pushing the black things off him. He wiped blood from the gash on his cheek, then grabbed Kairi's discarded umbrella and started whacking the black things away from the three of them. "We'd better run! Sora, go ahead and get your parents or Cid! Take Kairi with you! I'll hold these off!" he commanded. 

"No! You're coming with us!!!" Kairi shouted at him. 

Riku swatted another ant-thing away before shouting back, "All right!" and grabbing Sora's hand, dragging both of them. 

The army of Heartless followed them in pursuit. Worse, more of them spawned from their left, their right, and they just barely avoided the ones that spawned in front of them. 

"Running away from them's not working!!!" Sora screamed as he let himself flinch from a hit. 

"What do we do?! They're leading us away from any kind of people!" Kairi screeched. 

Riku frantically looked at all directions. "Uhhh… Over there!" he said, pointing to the alleyway they previously had walked through. 

_Running away is futile. _

Sora, surprised by the voice, lost his concentration and tripped, rolling towards a wall. 

_Stay and fight. Protect them. _

"SORA!" Kairi screamed when she saw the Heartless cornering him. 

Riku stepped forward to help Sora out of the mess, but he was held back by more Heartless. "Sora! Hold on!" 

_Don't worry. Your heart is strong enough to take them on… _

Sora saw Kairi and Riku being knocked out by the shadows… 

"I can't take these on by myself! I… I need help…" 

_Unless you choose to give up and fall into the abyss… _

Blinded by the darkness in the alley, and lack of strength, Sora used the last amount of his energy to let himself feel the shadows taking him in the darkness… 

________________

Hmm… I couldn't make the 'action' part of this story to be more active… Oh well. How did I do in this one? 

Truth be told, I don't have much faith in this story because it's too unorthodox. Here are some more notes: 

1) In this chapter, Riku looked very much like that blind-folded dude in Another Side, Another Story. I made the setting to be just like in that clip. I hope somebody noticed! 

2) Tifa and Barret, if you're unaware, are two more characters in Final Fantasy 7. It's a great game. Can't wait for Advent Children! (dies, because it's only a few months away)

3) Voice In Sora's Head isn't likely Ansem. But who knows… 

Okay, thanks for those few people who reviewed! Oh yeah, P.S. means postscript. Just because somebody asked. =) 

Please take some time and review; just so I'll know what kind of audience this fic has. Oh yeah, no one still knows where to get a KH script? ;) Bye!


	3. Dive In

**Hand in Hand **

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all its characters, places, items, puppies, trinities, moogles, Heartless, Unknowns, etc. either belong to Square-Enix or Disney. 

Pre-story note: For some reason, John Mayer's songs in Heavier Things helped in writing this story so far. 0_o

**Chapter III: Dive In **

________________

_I think…my eyes were open, I can see things and colors and stuff… but I really wasn't seeing anything. _

"What's happening to me?" 

_I'm falling in the sky… I thought I was drowning for a moment there… _

"I can't breathe…" 

_I wish I'd land into something solid right about now. _

_It's so dark in this place… _

"Am I still falling?" 

_I think I'm in a church. _

________________

In an instant, Sora found himself lying down on stained glass. His head was throbbing; it seemed like he had just awoken from a nightmare. Rubbing the back of his head, he debated with himself whether he should stand up or just lie down there until whoever's playing with him would allow him to wake up. 

"Ow… That was crazy," he told himself. He eventually stood up, though, and once he did, he regretted it, because the voice in his head spoke up again. 

_So much to do, so little time... Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it? _

"Take my time doing what, exactly…" Sora thought to himself angrily as he stared at the beautifully done stained glass image of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. "Wow… I never liked it, but… this is too strange…" 

He stepped forward. A sword, a shield and a staff formed from the shadows. 

_If you give it form... It will give you strength. Choose well. _

Sora shook his head. "I don't think it will matter, whichever I choose…" 

_You're not ready for anything yet. Maybe if you'd tell me more about yourself?... _

Sora gasped as the darkness of that empty space gained light. The next thing he knew, he was on Tidus' spot on Destiny Islands. 

Well, this was strange enough. Sora looked around. Selphie, Wakka and Tidus were talking amongst themselves, not noticing that Sora was there. 

Wait. Tidus, Wakka and Selphie were there! He doesn't have to be alone anymore! "Hey, you guys, you're here too?! What's going on? How'd you all get here?"

The three of them turned to look at Sora. Then they looked at each other and nodded. 

"Uh… you guys?" Sora asked warily. These three are starting to creep me out… he thought. 

________________

_The three of them looked at me. It was as if I was a stranger to them, but a stranger that they've been waiting for… for quite some time now. _

_They walked towards me. It was kinda strange, the way they moved. They left some sort of silhouette behind them. Like they're ghosts or something. But it seemed kinda out of place. The island was too sunny and too breezy to be scary. _

_Then, their mouths opened. They were speaking, but I wasn't too sure if I heard their voices at all. _

_"What's most important to you?" _

_"What are you afraid of?" _

_"What do you want outta life?" _

_I looked at them strangely. They didn't mind at all. All they wanted were my answers. Problem was, hard as I racked my brain to have at least one specific answer to the questions, I came up with none. _

_What's most important to me? I dunno. There are too many important things in my life, and I don't consider that one is more important than the others. _

_What am I afraid of? Failure. Rejection. Lose everything I know. Getting lost. And so much more. But I can't tell Tidus that. I don't think that those are the answers he's expecting. _

_What do I want out of life? Happiness, basically. But… I didn't answer Wakka anyway. I might regret saying the wrong answer. _

_But they were my friends, right? And I'm 14. So what if I give them some shallow answers? I'm not sure why I just didn't come up with something like, "Being number one" or "Getting Old" or "To see rare sights"… I just had the strangest feeling that this Tidus-Wakka-Selphie session would be important. Later on. _

_"Your adventure begins at the dead of the night…"_

_"The day you will open the door is both far off and very near."_

_That's what I'm afraid of, yeah. What would happen later on. I should have told that to Tidus before the sunny island faded to black again._

________________

Sora found himself on the stained glass room again. This time though, the image was of Princess Aurora, surrounded by thorns. 

"What now?" he asked out loud. As if to answer his question, stairs appeared out of nowhere. Shrugging, he decided to take the stairs to wherever. 

He reached the top of the stairs. There was light coming from somewhere… He believed that it was an exit from this nightmarish place (because light appearing in dark places means something good, right?) 

Wrong. 

_The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. _

Curiously, Sora turned to look at his shadow. That makes sense. His shadow was a lot taller than him now… 

But then, it rose up. His shadow was alive. 

_But don't be afraid. And don't forget…_

"What the hell!?" he screamed. His shadow, with its little beady yellow eyes, glared at him menacingly. He backed away, hoping that another convenient set of stairs would appear out of nowhere again… but, nothing. He almost fell off the edge of the portrait. 

The sword he saw earlier on the pedestals formed on his hands. It seemed that he has no choice. He had to fight this thing in front of him… Darkside, he dubbed it. Since it appeared from the darker side of him… 

________________

_I can't believe it. I was actually putting up a fight with this huge thing. And those annoying little black ants that had attacked us back in the alleyway. _

_I really wasn't thinking during the fight. Just hit the ants until they disappear and drop candy (those green balls made me feel better and healed a few wounds), then hit Darkside's hand that seemed to be responsible for the appearance of the ants. _

_And I was feeling victorious at that time. But then, I felt myself sinking so suddenly. _

_Sinking slowly into the darkness._

_"But don't be afraid."_

________________

_You hold the mightiest weapon of all. _

_So don't forget: You are the one who will open the door. _

________________

That was one hard chapter to write… especially the Tidus-Wakka-Selphie session! I hope I didn't do too badly… Anyways, on to the notes: 

1) I hope you weren't confused with the Sora POV's and the 3rd person POV. 

2) Thank you to annjirika and Inside Lines (I hope I got both of your names right!) for the script-finding! 

3) The chapter's title is 'Dive In' because of the 'Dive Into The Heart' thing… 

Okay! That's it, for now. Sorry if I'm not very descriptive, my stories tend to be more event-driven, or something like that. :sweatdrop: Anyways, as always, comments and suggestions would be appreciated! 


	4. In and out of reality

**Hand in Hand **

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square-Enix and Disney. 

Pre-story note: Is this more of drama or comedy? Whootiver… 

**Chapter IV: In and Out of Reality **

________________

The next moment that Sora felt some life felt like a century. 

_"Hey, you lazy bum!__ Wake up!" _

"… Kairi?" he thought, still in the dark void, it seemed. His new desire to open his eyes fought with his desire to let himself linger in nothingness for a few more moments… 

________________

For a moment there, Sora thought he was in the Islands again, and that Kairi was in her 'sunny Destiny Islands' get-up. But when his eyes focused again… he found himself in his hotel room in Traverse Town. And that a normally-clothed Kairi, seated on the edge of his bed, was poking him with her finger. And that Riku was, as usual, leaning against the wall through the whole scene.

"Oh, Sora, you're alive! For a moment there, me and Riku thought you were dead," Kairi said jokingly. 

Sora sat up quickly, looking around the room, then looking at his hands to see if he's real or not. Or if he left behind him those ethereal silhouettes whenever he moved. 

_What the hell? A dream?... _he thought. Looking over to Kairi and Riku, who were having a conversation of their own, he noted that they _didn't _act like they were engulfed in the Dark Abyss or anything like that. 

"Heheh… nice going, Sora. Now I owe Kairi ten bucks because you were still alive," Riku said, flipping his hair. The silver-haired boy then noticed that he was kind of disoriented. "Hey, Sora, you all right?" 

Kairi looked over curiously at him. "Yeah. Did you have a nightmare or something?" 

"Uh… yeah… I guess… but I don't remember any of it right now," Sora lied. Still, flashes of Tidus, Wakka and Selphie on the Islands, the three weapons, and Darkside appeared before his eyes every second or so. 

Riku got off the wall and stretched. "Well, you better get dressed, Sora. And we have to get to the set before…"

"Hey, you guys… did we do anything last night?" he suddenly asked. 

Kairi and Riku looked at each other with weird looks on their faces. "Uh… we ate at Tifa's 7th Heaven?" Kairi answered uneasily. 

Sora reminded himself of the events he thought had happened. "Uh… and did we go out for a walk after we ate?" 

"No. We were gonna, but it was raining outside and Kairi didn't wanna catch a cold… so we went back inside and waited until the grown-ups drove us home," Riku replied. "Honestly, Sora, I hope nobody spiked your drink or something." 

"Yeah, Sora, that must have been one nasty nightmare you had," Kairi said, standing up from his bed. "Anyways, like Riku was saying a moment ago, ya gotta get dressed now. You know how the director-dude is when he's angry. And he's kinda strict about skeds…" 

"We'll wait for you at the lobby, Sora." With that, Riku and Kairi exited from the room. 

Sora, as he stood up and got out of his pajamas, pondered on this weird thing he's experiencing… 

________________

_Well… that was just… strange. Is this yet another dream? I am sick of dreaming. I wanna go back to reality again. _

_How could Riku and Kairi not remember anything from last night?! I was so sure that everything was real… I mean, that everything I saw happened. I'm not sure right now if anything's real. What's with the Heartless? And that dark place I was into? _

_Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe I should just let it go… because it was a dream, nothing real. Just my mind playing tricks on me. _

_No! No! That DID happen! Don't pretend that it didn't!_

_And that scene back in the __Island__… Tidus, Wakka and Selphie, as far as I can remember, are very real people. What were they doing there? What's with the questions they asked me? _

_Destiny__Island__… I've always wanted to come home again there… I'd have to admit, seeing it like that, all ghostly and stuff… still made me miss it. _

_Darkside__ and those Heartless.__ What did they want from me? And the door? I know Kingdom Hearts is full of doors and keys and stuff… but, it's gonna be crazy if that script would come true. I wish something would make sense right about now. _

_I'm so screwed._

_Maybe I'll talk to Riku about it later. He's the one who wrote the story, after all. _

________________

"Hey, Riku, can I talk to you for a moment?" Sora asked, the moment the director told them to have a break. 

"Hm? Yeah, sure, Sora," said Riku, who was sucking on a lollipop at that time. Sora dragged him to a corner of the set. 

"So, what's up?" 

"Uh… okay, here goes…" Sora began, squinting, holding his forehead, twiddling his fingers, generally doing the things nervous people do. Riku raised an eyebrow as he watched Sora fumble for the words to say. "You know, I had a nightmare last night." 

Riku, lollipop still in mouth, nodded while giving him a ridiculous look. "Yeah, you told us that this morning. But you've forgotten all about it." 

"No, I haven't. The thing is, it had something to do with KH. You know… the story. The one you wrote?" 

Riku nodded again. "Does this have something to do with Leon?" 

"NO! Uh… it had Heartless and princesses and Tidus, Wakka and Selphie and creepy Darkside thingy with Medusa-like hair in it… And I was falling in the sky… and some voice in my head made me choose a weapon in this dark room… and I think you and Kairi were attacked by ants!" Sora ranted. 

Riku looked at him with a funny, confused look. "Uh… Sora? I think someone _really_ spiked your drink last night. You're talking crazy, man." 

Sora looked up at him irritably. 

"Besides, that can't be the story that I wrote… Sure, there were Heartless and Darkside in it… but I don't… remember that scene you're talking about. It's just a mixed-up dream, Sora… let it go," Riku said, shrugging. 

"Wai-wai-wait. Darkside's really in the movie?" Sora asked. 

"Uh… yeah? Oh, right, that's one of the scenes at the end, you know, the one with Ansem in it… oh, and sometime when I get sucked in the darkness and you try to find Kairi but, well, you didn't. What, you haven't read the story before?" Riku asked, narrowing his eyes at him. 

Sora scratched the back of his head. "Eh… hehheh… It was kinda long, ya know." 

"Hmn. Anyways, like I said, a crazy dream. Let it go." With that, Riku, with a confused Sora following behind, walked towards where the people were in the set. 

________________

_Yeah, Riku wrote the whole thing, not changing our names at all. _

_Back in __Destiny__Island__, where my family and Kairi and Riku really live, Riku already had this weird thing for writing stories. Then, he'd always let me and Kairi read them, but I never really get what he's doing. He uses these big words and everything. And those plots… whoo, confusing. But Kairi enjoyed them a lot. I guess that's what kept Riku going. _

_Then, he posted his weirdest story yet—Kingdom Hearts—on the 'net. Everybody who'd come across it told him that it was great, even though the concept of having it with Disney characters was strange. Besides, a child-actor with a fetish for writing was bound to receive good feedback._

_Then it happened. A very successful movie director came across it. Became interested in making it a movie…._

__________________

That evening, after the shootings were over, Sora chose to go to the Hotel all by himself.

He took another path, of course. The one where he turns to this alleyway in which the walls were full of graffiti. 

He reached the very large image of the symbol of the Heartless. Touching it, he realized that it wasn't spray-painted or anything. Was as if it was part of the wall. 

_This world has been connected too, you know. _

"Heya, Sora. Whatcha doing?" 

He turned around and saw Yuffie standing behind him. 

"Whoa, that's one large graffiti. Did you do it? That's bad, you know!" Yuffie said, examining the graffiti for herself. "Pretty cool though. Hey! That's the Heartless symbol right? Cool!" 

"Uh… Yuffie? I didn't do this one. Probably a crazed fan did," Sora replied. "So, what's up?" 

"Hmm? Oh, you know, I saw you going out alone and I didn't want that. So, you wanna walk with me?" she asked. 

"Eh… I'm actually fine on my own…" Sora noticed Yuffie glare at him. "but, why not!" he added hurriedly. 

"Okay! You can come with me! I was gonna drink a milkshake over there at that place!" she pointed out excitedly at a nearby ice cream parlor. Before Sora could deny the invitation, Yuffie was already dragging him to the place. 

__________________

_It was a bad idea to have ice cream with Yuffie. She likes it extra sugary. _

_The sugar crash I experienced after that was nasty. _

_Worse of all, when we were walking back to our hotel, a bunch of thugs somehow had us cornered. I can't remember, I was so drowsy at that time. _

_I remember Yuffie shouting at them fearlessly; she even kicked one of them in the nuts to show them how dangerous it was to pick on her. _

_But I also do remember one of them throwing something hard on my head. I also remember getting unconscious after that… _

_Not to worry though. Yuffie's actually a great martial artist. She'll get us out of this mess. I'll be awake and safe in no time. _

__________________

This was another hard chapter to write… I think I've confused myself, too… *sobs* And I'm basically not satisfied with how I ended it…. Okay, I'll admit it, this was a horrible, horrible chapter. -_-' You know the drill, right? 

1) Riku wrote KH in this story, as mentioned above. What, you ask, a 15 year old had the brains and creativity to write that kind of story? I don't make much of an effort to make this story realistic folks, as you may have noticed. 

2) In the movie, supposedly, the 'Dive Into The Heart' scene wasn't included. That was what Riku was telling Sora somewhere in this chapter… 

3) I hope this isn't as confusing to read as it is to write. I really really had a hard time weaving this chapter.

Okay! Stay tuned for the next chapter! Please review. Your suggestions and comments keep mah brain sparkin' with all sorts of ideas! 


	5. Destiny Islands

**Hand in Hand **

Disclaimer: KH ain't mine! You should know that by now! 

Pre-story note: I hope a few people are still reading this. *sobs* 

**Chapter V: ****Destiny****Islands**

__________________

_"Hey, you lazy bum, wake UP!" _

_What? _Sora thought, confused. _I thought this scene was already over. _

He felt somebody poking him on the shoulder again. When he opened his eyes, huge blue eyes looked back at him. 

"AH!" he screamed in surprise. "Kairi?!" 

It was Kairi, all right. In full costume. In her purple skirt, her black shirt, her white-and-purple tank top and purple clogs again. 

"Yeah, it's me, you lazy bum. Who else?" she said, still giggling. "I knew I'd find you snoozing down here." 

_Snoozing… where? _Sora took one look around… and saw that he wasn't in his hotel room, like he was expecting when he'd wake up. He was on 

"The Island? Destiny Island?! What am I doing… home?" he thought, confused. "Wait… I'm wearing the huge yellow shoes again… Uh-oh…" 

"Hey, are you still dreaming? You look a bit confused." 

Sora shook his head. "Oh, uh…" At that point, he knew he was in the movie again. "This huge, black thing swallowed me up, and—" 

"Yeah, sure," Kairi said, cutting him off. 

Sora tried to test his theory. "Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up?" 

"I've told you before, I don't remember." Exact same lines on the script. 

"Nothing at all?" 

"Nothing." Definitely. 

"You… ever wanna go back?" 

"Well, I'm happy here. But you know, I wouldn't mind going to see it!" Kairi replied, beaming. 

At that point, Sora was too dumbfounded with what's happening around him that he didn't say anything else to Kairi. She looked at him weirdly. 

"You know what Sora, you're acting strangely today. C'mon! The other worlds are waiting! Let's go see them all!" She took his hand to help him stand up. 

"Hey, aren't you guys forgetting about me?" 

Sora closed his eyes and mumbled, "Oh, don't tell me, it's Riku carrying a log, right?" 

Riku, who was indeed carrying a log, heard this and was surprised. "Hm, how'd you know? So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft," he told them with a ridiculous tone. 

He threw the log at Sora. Sora did catch it… but it was really heavy so he fell. "And you're just as lazy as he is!" 

"Oh, so you noticed," Kairi said, smiling sheepishly. "Okay, so we'll finish it together. I'll race you!" 

"Huh?" Oh no, he's supposed to run now. Not when he's just been knocked out by a bunch of thugs. But, feeling his forehead, he noted that the bump he's supposed to have wasn't there… 

"What, are you kidding?" Riku said. 

"Ready? Go!" 

Riku looked at Sora, challenging him within a quick second. Thinking that he had no other choice, Sora instantly stood up and ran alongside Riku, with Kairi running right behind them both. 

Of course, Riku won. But only because Sora wasn't in the competitive mood that he's really supposed to be in. And oh, because he was wearing those big yellow shoes again. 

__________________

_I'm in this dream world again! I don't believe it! And just when Riku had me convinced that all this was a harmless dream… _

_After Kairi told me to pick up the things for the raft (Logs, cloth and rope…) I kept pinching myself as I walked. But, I didn't wake up, even though my arms started to hurt pretty badly. _

_This was __Destiny__Island__ all right, but not the one I belong to. This was Riku's __Destiny__Island__, in a sense that everything was as he had written it (and as I remembered from the script...). Tidus was 'swatting at flies' in his hangout, Wakka was standing by the beach, and Selphie was sitting on the dock and staring at the waves. I even challenged the three of them to fight me, and I let myself get hit by Tidus repeatedly on the head with his toy sword, but still, I didn't wake up. I eventually had to give up because the pain didn't get me anywhere. I just gathered all the things Kairi needed, and she gave me a Hi-Potion in return. (It was a fascinating thing to look at, actually.) _

_"So, are you tired? Wanna call it a day?" she asked me. I just nodded. Wakka's posse had beaten me up pretty badly. _

_"Ok. It's getting late. We'll finish up tomorrow."_

__________________

Later on, Kairi, Riku and Sora were sitting by the Paopu Tree, watching the sunset. Sora looked at them and concluded that this was a thing that the three of them do everyday.

"So, Kairi's home… is out there somewhere, right?" _I bet he's gonna say something like, 'we'll never know by staying here.'_

"Could be. We'll never know by staying here." 

"But how far could a raft take us?" _Creepy.__ It's like I can read his mind or something._

"Who knows. If we have to, we'll think of something else," Riku replied, shrugging. 

"So, suppose we get to another world. What would you do there?" _Hmm…___

"Well, I haven't really thought about it. It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?" _Riku's__ still a big thinker._

Sora tried not to say, "I don't know," because it was getting creepy that he knew what the others were going to say. Maybe if he said something else? "Uh… I think that… uh… If there are other worlds out there… there'd be other people there, right? Then we'd look different, like we'd be… uh… merpeople or zombies!" _Damn, that sounded dumb. But as far as I can remember, it's true for this universe I'm in. _

Kairi and Riku looked at him strangely. But, Riku, as usual, shrugged. "That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff," He looked at them directly. _I guess I can't change anything at this point._

"So… let's go." _I guess I can't change anything at this point._

"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi asked. _This must be where he starts conspiring for something. _

"Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably would have never thought of any of this." _Hey… I didn't notice how intense he looks at Kairi. _

"Kairi, thanks." _I don't like it one bit. _

Kairi giggled uneasily. "You're welcome…"

__________________

_A few more minutes of staring at the sinking sun, and then we started heading for our own houses. I hope my house in THIS __Destiny__Island__ is the same as my own back in MY __Destiny__Island__. _

"Sora," _called Riku. He tossed a star-shaped thingy at me. I only recognized it after I barely caught it. _"You wanted one, didn't you?"

"A Paopu fruit…" _What else could I say? Up to know, I still couldn't figure out why Riku (whichever Riku, that is) would think that I had wanted one. _

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives, no matter what." _And after hearing that line so many times, I still didn't get how sharing one tiny fruit would intertwine destinies and whatever else. _

_He saw me looking awkwardly at the fruit. He smiled. _"C'mon, I know you want to try it." 

"Naw," _I just said. He laughed and ran ahead._

_I also never figured out why Riku would just challenge me to share Paopu with someone else… What, did he want to see me gather up the guts to ask Kairi or Selphie to share this with me? Or did he want to share this with me?! (Eeew!) Oh well._

_I thought about throwing the fruit away, like I was supposed to do… but, I pocketed it when Riku was out of sight. _

_Maybe then I'll answer the age-old question: If Paopu fruit tastes like banana, watermelon or mango. Since none of us at home had the guts to eat Paopu before, we've always fought about it… Now I have a chance to know. Problem is, I don't know who to share this with…_

__________________

Baaaah! Is anyone still reading this?! Oh well… I'll still continue this… despite being unappreciated… *sobs dramatically… or something like that* Just kidding! Don't review if you don't want to, I just wanna know if anyone's reading this at all, so I'll know if all my efforts are seen. 

Oh yeah, sorry if this chapter is rushed. I was supposed to finish and revise this today, but there was no power for the whole day! And, I'm in a hurry to finish at least half of this story before the month ends, because once graduation comes, it's all the college-y stuff from there. (Urgh!) I'll edit this someday if it needs editing… Oi…

Preview of next chapter: Still on Destiny Islands, the Heartless comes, and our friend Darkside makes another cameo! I'd like to think that it's gunna be a good chappy because, well, Sora and Riku would have a 'moment' there… (AIE! Slash! No, people, whether you like it or not, no slash is gonna plague my fic!) Okay, buh-bye! Til next I update, and we shall meet again! And again! And again… 


	6. That Night

**Hand in Hand **

Disclaimer: No patience to explain!... see previous chapters… 

Pre-story note: I can't explain why the writer's mind works better at late night. Oh well. 

**Chapter VI: That Night **

__________________

Sora grumbled as he went past Wakka towards the Secret Place. Wakka raised an eyebrow upon seeing Sora in this mood, but decided not to say anything. 

It was the day after Sora found himself in this alternate version of Destiny Islands. He had just discovered that his 'mother' in this place was an unfamiliar woman who had no real personality (after that thought, he was ashamed that he thought of that for his own mother… even though not his real one). And today, he just lost to Riku on a tree-tagging race. It's not that he had lost that got Sora in a bad mood, just that Riku had scared him because he brought up the topic of Paopu fruit again. 

_"Deal? The winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi," _Riku had challenged him. Because of that, Sora just had to do his best to win… but he didn't. At least Riku was just kidding with the deal and all. 

And now, because Sora had lost, Kairi had sent him on one of the most annoying jobs for their 'raft quest'; Food Gathering. He was already done whacking the coconut trees silly for coconuts, he almost fell when he hunted for that seagull egg (he was attacked by its mother seagull) and he was already all wet for getting fresh water and chasing after little fish (Selphie was laughing her head off at the sight of him). At least he was already at the last place for mushroom hunting, the Secret Place. (Of course, he still wasn't sure if the other mushrooms he had obtained were edible at all or not, but he was just following orders.)

"Wait," he thought as he walked through the narrow path within the Secret Place. "I think this scene is gonna be an important one…" 

"Wow, will you look at that," Sora mumbled to himself as he stared at the image on the cavern wall—doodles of him and Kairi that they had drawn when they were little. 

He spotted a sharp rock just below the drawings. Then, without thinking, he grabbed the rock and scratched an additional doodle on the wall—Little Sora handing a star to Little Kairi. 

Sora surprised himself when he did that because he did it out of choice. Oh well, he shrugged, dropped the rock and found the mushrooms he was looking for. Then, he felt it. 

A man was there, probably watching him the whole time. Sora felt his eyes at him (that is, if he had eyes at all), but he didn't bother turning around to look at him. 

"I've come to see the door to this world." 

"This world has been connected."

"Tied to the darkness… soon to be completely eclipsed." 

"You do not know yet what lies beyond the door…"

Sora felt the hairs at the back of his neck rising. "You don't want this world…" he mumbled, not sure if he was trying to convince this man to stop. This man was probably the start of the trouble that lies ahead… 

"There is so very much to learn. You understand so little." Sora knew that the man was smirking nastily at him.

Whatever, Sora thought. "You know what, your riddles are beginning to bother me. Well, I'm gonna learn what's out there. You'll see," he snapped. 

"A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand… nothing."

And just like that, the man disappeared. 

Sora took a deep breath before turning to leave the Secret Place. But before he left, he grabbed the sharp rock again, and after much thought, scribbled the following words: 

_You guys, whatever happens, we'll always be together. Remember that! _

_I'll look for you if I have to. –Sora _

__________________

_Right now, I'm lying in this bed… Worrying about the incoming storm that's about to change everybody's lives. _

_I've already talked to Riku. Asked him what he was planning to do tonight, tried to talk him into sleeping over at my house… but he refused. And he didn't tell me why, exactly. _

_As I waited, I just stared up the ceiling, thinking about everything that had happened. Being a noobie in showbiz, and now, a 'chosen one' of some sorts in this alternate universe. _

_"I can't wait… once we set sail. It'll be great." _

_I sighed. It was depressing listening to Kairi earlier, knowing that we'll never set sail. _

_Well, I'm not gonna let us three be separated tonight. Not now that I have a chance to stop this._

_Without further thought, I jumped out the window as the first drops of rain began to fall._

________________

The moment his feet landed on sand, Shadows ambushed him. 

He grabbed his toy sword and swatted them away the best as he could, but the wooden plaything couldn't touch them, let alone hurt them. "Dammit!" his shout was barely heard within the loud winds. He decided to run away from them when the gashes began to hurt. 

Desperately, through the darkness, he searched for the islet where the Riku's Paopu tree stood. And there he found Riku as expected—looking out to the endless, dark sea. 

"Riku! Get out of there!" Sora shouted. 

Riku turned to him and smiled. Sora didn't like the expression on his face… "The door has opened…" 

"Riku—" 

"The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" Riku said almost joyfully. The winds were getting stronger now. 

"Riku, you don't know what you're getting yourself into—what you're getting us and Kairi into! Please listen to me!" Sora shouted again, barely avoiding an attack from a Shadow that had reached the islet. 

"Kairi's coming with us! Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" Riku replied. His green eyes were almost glowing with the excitement of leaving this island. No trace of fear or anything, Sora noted. 

He offered his hand to Sora. "Sora… let's go," his voice seemed so far away now. Now that the darkness was engulfing him.

_Riku… you're losing yourself…_

"NO!!!" _I… I have to save him…! _Sora ran towards Riku, intending to get him away from the dark circle that appeared at his feet. "Riku!!!" 

Sora tackled… nothing. It was too late. Riku was gone. 

"No…" he whispered hopelessly. Sora was gasping hard, suddenly eyeing the Heartless Army that was behind him all along. A flash of light, then he found the Keyblade in his grasp. 

_Oh no… Kairi! _

He swung the Keyblade at the Shadows, making them disappear. Then, using the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he ran his fastest towards the Secret Place. Maybe there was still hope in rescuing Kairi. 

Sora ran through the narrow path again. Surprisingly, it was silent when he reached the place with the door… where Kairi was standing, looking very fragile. 

"Kairi!" Sora called out, running towards her. 

"Sora…" her voice sounded very weak. Tired blue eyes looked up to him. 

A black wind swept her away. Sora tried to catch her, but he caught… nothing. 

He was unable to rescue them both… 

________________

_I couldn't save them… _

Darkside appeared just as the Islands were being destroyed. 

Sora's fear of this monster lasted only for a moment. Then, with all of his strength and the last part of his brain functioning properly, he had managed to defeat it. 

_I knew what was gonna happen… I still couldn't stop them… _

He felt the ground he was standing on beginning to crumble. 

_Riku… Kairi… _

All of the Islands were sucked into a black hole. 

_I'm… sorry… _

Sora didn't fight this force that was pulling him in. Not daring to open his eyes, he felt himself falling again… Behind his closed eyelids, he saw flashes of light fading from sight… 

Somewhere in Traverse Town, a mage and a soldier watched fearfully as another star blinked out of existence. 

________________

*Sniff* Thanks for reviewing, you guys! Hey, do you think it was OOC for Sora to curse like that? I just thought that since he's 14, he's capable of saying anything he wants, right?

Anyways, I was debating with myself if every detail of what had happened in Destiny Islands should be mentioned here (a lot of it was significant for the story, ya know), but I think it would be agonizing to read through all that, and in a state of confusion, I came up with this chapter… Anyway, Traverse Town's up next! Isn't it just grand… And, whether you like it or not, Donald and Goofy would be in it too! And they have major roles! Whoo! 

Okay, til next we meet. Bye bye! 


	7. Traverse Town

**Hand in Hand**

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts doesn't belong to me. Baaaaah….

Pre-story note: Don't work under the influence of Nerds. (you know… the candy.) 

**Chapter VII: Traverse Town **

________________

For what seemed like an eternity, Sora found himself swimming in the darkness. He thought that he was in whatever far plane that Riku was, where he had disappeared to when he invited the darkness… 

_I'm gonna wake up soon… there's nothing to worry about… _

_But for now… I'll rest here a while. I'm tired from fighting Darkside. _

Once again, Sora proved himself a 'semi-psychic'. A few more moments, and he felt himself land violently on pavement, and a warm lick on his cheek… 

A blur of colors appeared before his vision as he opened his eyes. After blinking a few times, he realized that he was in some sort of alleyway, sitting there like a homeless person… and that a dog was the one who woke him up from his previous state. 

_Where… am I? Hey, I know this place… _he tried to remember, but his head just hurt badly, like it was split in 3 ways. _Okay, Sora… just rest yourself a few more moments… _

The peculiar orange dog looked up at him curiously, but put a paw on his lap, as if it were trying to comfort him. 

When Sora had taken enough time to sort his mind, he then recognized where he was in. 

"Traverse Town…" When he stood up, he felt that he was holding something heavy. "And the Keyblade's still with me…" 

He turned to the dog. "Uh… Pluto, right?" Pluto wagged its tail in response. "Where are… your companions?" he asked awkwardly, asking himself why he was resorted to talking to a dog. (The kind that didn't talk, that is.) 

Pluto responded by running out onto the streets. Sora was surprised by the sudden motion, but he tried to keep up with the dog. 

He lost him, anyway. Sora, breathless, stopped in front of a building.

"Aw… dammit!" Sora muttered, kicking a random rock towards a random direction. He huffed and turned around, when he heard the rock hit something solid. Something solid that cussed. 

"F***! What the $#@%'s your problem, kid?!" 

He froze. He knew that eventually, he'd meet this person, but he had *hoped* that it wasn't in that manner. 

"Uh… sorry, sir…" he mumbled sheepishly, turning to a very angered Cid. 

"Ya better be. Lucky you hit me. If it was something else, ya coulda provoked it and it mighta just kill ya now! Get it?!" Cid said, walking towards Sora. He examined the boy for a few seconds. "Hm. You look kinda lost…" The man trailed off and screamed another curse when he saw something forming behind Sora. 

"H-huh?!" Sora managed to stammer, but Cid dragged him behind him. 

"Stand back kid, this is bound to get violent," the man said, taking a canon that he was hiding behind his back. Aiming it at the Heartless, he frowned with disgust. "GET OUTTA HERE, DAMN SCUM!" He mercilessly shot at the Heartless. Within seconds, they had vanished, leaving a few candy and munny. 

Cid rubbed his nose (a habit he can't seem to break, much like the cigar clamped within his teeth) and turned to Sora. "Take the munny and eat the candy. Then follow me to my shop. I'll help ya out," he instructed, then went ahead into the building labeled "Accessory Shop".

________________

"So, kid, you're bound to have a name. Mine's Cid. What's yours?" Cid asked with a gruff tone.

Sora liked the looks of this accessory shop better than the artificial one on the set. This one was more welcoming. On the couches sprawled a tired looking Moogle, taking a nap, and there was a fire crackling in the fireplace. "Uh… Sora, sir…" He replied awkwardly. To think, a man he had considered he had known for his whole life was asking him his name. 

"So, Sora, if that _is_ your real name," Cid said, throwing the already finished cigar from his mouth, "seems that you're not a local in this town—don't worry, no need to hide that you're from another world, Traverse Town's the place where the 'worldless' people go—You have any plans as of now?" 

Sora scratched his head. He considered telling him, "Well, seems I have no other place to go, so I'm planning to save the other worlds from falling in the hands of the Heartless, and in the process, restore my world and rescue my friends. All I have to do is look for a duck and a dog to help me, have you seen them walking around here?" but then that was really stupid, even though that was the point of Riku's story. "Uh… M-maybe I'll wander around town… check out if I could recognize anybody I know. You know? That's possible right?" Sora finally said. 

Cid rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmm. Nice plan, but you wouldn't wanna be decapitated by the Heartless roaming around town… Here's my farewell gift to ya," he said, throwing a piece of bread at Sora. "Eat it, ya still look weak."

"Thanks," he mumbled, walking out the door, trying to prepare himself to what he expected would happen next. 

________________

Sora walked out of the accessory shop, feeling a bit grateful that Cid gave him that bit of bread after all. He felt a bit of his strength back. And he knew that he needed strength for what was going to happen next. 

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." _Oh no, here we go, _Sora thought to himself. 

"And they'll keep coming at you. As long as you wield the Keyblade…" It was him. Leon. 

"But why… why would it choose a kid like you?" Leon said exasperatedly, touching his forehead. 

Sora frowned, trying to hide his nervousness_. I'm gonna be beaten up now… _

"Hmph. Well, let's see that Keyblade…" Leon said, approaching Sora slowly. 

"Back off! You're not taking this from me…" Sora said, a hint of challenging in his voice. 

"Very well…" _This is it. _

The next line threw Sora off-guard. "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to ask you to take a nap." 

_Wha? Where did that come from?! _

Before Sora could do anything, Leon had already hit him at the back of his head. As he fell, he felt Leon catching him, and carrying him on his shoulder to somewhere beyond that district… 

________________

_Ow… my head… _

_If it was split 3 ways before, now it split at 6… _

_I didn't wanna open my eyes then. I was having a dream that I was back in my island, and me, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka and Selphie were playing with puppies, and that Dad and Leon were harassed by more puppies, and basically, we were having fun… _

_Then, another voice went into my mind. The moment I heard her, the island just faded away… _

_"Come on, lazy bum. Wake up." _

_… Kairi? _

_I don't know where I was seeing her, but there she was. "You okay?" _

_"I… I guess…" _

"Dude… dude, wake up! Hey! Hmm… you hit him too hard, Squall."

_Huh? Kairi, what the heck are you saying?_

________________

Sora awoke for the second time that night. Trying to ignore the throbbing in his brain, he found himself staring at the ceiling of a room. 

"That's Leon," he heard an annoyed voice from one end of the room. 

"Naw, I think I'd still call you Squall… Oh, you're awake!" The girl beside Sora faced him and smiled. "So, how ya feelin'? Great Ninja Yuffie, at your service!" she said, offering a hand. 

Sora shook it. "Uh… okay… How'd I get here?" 

Yuffie smiled again. "Oh! Squall here saw you walk out of the Accessory Shop carrying that," she pointed to Sora's Keyblade, which was leaning against the wall, "and then he instantly knew that we should protect you. You know, cuz you're helpless fighting off the Heartless alone." 

Leon nodded. "It was the only way to conceal your heart from them. But it won't work for long. Still hard to believe that you, of all people, are the chosen one," he said, demonstrating Sora's 'chosen one-ness' by swinging the Keyblade. As expected, it disappeared from Leon's grasp and formed again in Sora's. 

_Cool, _Sora thought. 

"I guess beggars can't be choosers." 

________________

_Leon and Yuffie explained everything I needed to know about the Heartless. _

_"Those without hearts. The darkness in peoples' hearts—that's what attracts them. And there is darkness within every heart." Leon's definition of the Heartless. It's clear that I'd have a hard time avoiding them. My insides are definitely all dark from what I've been through… _

_A few more moments of pondering, they appeared again. Crashed through the hotel window. They had sensed that the Keyblade was there. Yuffie freaked out, and Leon got his gunblade, ready to fight. "Yuffie, go!" _

_Once Yuffie ran out of the room, a very painful quack was heard from behind the door. And then, I saw her. _

_Brown hair. Green Eyes. Pink dress. _

_Mom…?_

_She didn't even notice me. She ran after Yuffie._

_"Sora, let's go," Leon called out after I shook my head, trying to be alert. We jumped out the window and attacked. _

________________

Whew. Longer than expected, definitely. How'd I dooooo? 

You may have noticed that I modified a _lot_ of the lines from the original KH game script. That's cause I just based it on the manga I found on www.ansemreport.com. 

Don't worry, I won't go through all the worlds in this kind of detail. Maybe the Coliseum, Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion only… I'll die if I do that. 

Please leave comments!


	8. The Sidekicks

**Hand in Hand   
**Disclaimer: N-e-v-e-r never never squeal!... nor own KH. Go figger.  
Pre-story note: This story better get back to the point soon!

**Chapter VIII: The Sidekicks **

"Don't bother with the small fry. Find their leader!"

"But—hey, don't leave me here! Aw, shoot," Sora grumbled as Leon ran away, randomly hacking at Heartless blocking his way. "Why leave a job like that to a kid like me?... Oh yeah, this stupid thing," he said as he swung the Keyblade at the Shadow gashing at him.

Swatting at more of the small fry and ignoring Leon's command, Sora made his way to the Third District, where he assumed the Leader was.

More Shadows later, he found himself standing at the middle of the Third District, staring at the pretty lights. "Well, nothing's happening so far… Wonder why…" he mumbled to himself, sighing.

"Gawrsh, are these the Heartless guys?"

"Let's go get 'em, Goofy!"

_Holy… _

A desperately squawking duck and a yelling dog-thing fell from above before Sora could finish his sentiments. They fell on a pile before Sora.

"YAH!" He yelled in surprise. For a while there, he thought that the Disney cartoons suddenly decided to just walk out of the TV and attack him. But then, his brain went back to the story at hand.

The duck and the dog-thing looked up happily at the object in Sora's grasp. "The Key!" they yelled in unison.

That instant, a dismantled purple robot formed itself in front of the trio.

Looking at each other, the three of them made up their minds to work together for a moment to dismantle once again the robot. Which was apparently full of candy.

"Gawrsh! We look for the Key bearer, and the Heartless throw us right in front'a him! A-hyuck!" Goofy said. Donald quacked happily.

Sora rubbed his eyes. _Man! They told me that they were just gonna draw these two next to me… but… _He looked at the two characters again. _They're real! They're not cartoons… THEY'RE REAL! Wow! If only I was a kid, I'd really be much more thrilled than I am right now… _

"So… you were lookin' for me?" he asked uneasily, swallowing up the little kid inside of him's excitement.

Leon, who, with Yuffie, had just found them at that time, nodded. "They too had been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade."

Goofy nodded. "Hey, why dontcha come with us? We can go ta other worlds in our vessel."

Sora bowed down. "I wonder if I can go back home… or find Riku and Kairi."

"Of course!" Donald quacked. Sora could still hear the two when they whispered to one another. Leon shook his head, as if to say, 'Don't take them so seriously.'

"Sora, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends."

He nodded sadly. _Actually, I just wanna go back to my real world. My real friends are still there, safe and sound, right? _Still, something inside him felt like abandoning them in this world is still abandoning them. "Yeah, I guess…" he mumbled.

His previous feeling of 'I-can-die-happily-now-that-I've-seen-cartoons-come-to-life' was replaced with a more cheerless feeling.

"But ya can't come looking like that! No frowning, no sad faces! Okay?" Donald asked with his big cartoony eyes.

Goofy laughed again. "Yeah, ya gotta look funny, like us!"

"This boat runs on happy faces!"

"… Happy," Sora mumbled. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply as if he's going to do something drastic, he counted 1-3 and gave his goofiest and most forced smile. _If this would make them happy. _

Donald and Goofy gave him a 'we're proud of you' look. Leon narrowed his eyes and frowned at the ridiculousness. Yuffie just giggled.

"Uh… okay, why not? I'll go with you guys."

Donald gave out a wing. "Donald Duck!"

"Name's Goofy!" he held out his gloved four-fingered hand.

"Well, I'm Sora." he said, placing his hand over theirs.

"All for one and one for all!"

_And so the unstoppable trio was formed, _Sora mumbled to himself.

He couldn't help but feel that Conspirators are watching him as his back was turned.

They walked towards the First District. "We're gonna board the Gummi Ship from there."

They stopped first at the Accessory Shop. Aerith and Cid were in there, waiting for them. As soon as they've rested for a few moments, Leon started his 'pre-journey' speech.

"Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead of you. We don't know how far the Heartless had spread."

"Hey, check out Cid's shop and the ducks from across the street's item shop! You'll need their stuff," Yuffie advised. Cid rubbed his palms together.

"Ducks from across the street?" Donald asked.

Yuffie shrugged. "Ducklings, actually. I think… you're Unca Donald, right?"

Aerith shook her head and laughed. Then she approached Sora. "Here. This is from all of us," then she handed Sora 100 munny and a bottle of glowing Elixir.

Sora stared up at her. _Mom! You can't recognize me? _"Thanks… M… _Aerith__._" He mumbled.

Aerith tilted her head. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

Sora looked down. "N-nothing! Just that… you remind me of someone I'm close with at home," he said quickly.

She smiled. "Well… you remind me of someone I knew… before…" she trailed off. "Just, someone I knew. Especially your eyes. You have the same eyes as he."

Sora swallowed. _If only you knew. _

"Ahyuck! Well, we better get goin'!"

"Yeah! Ya'd better! My cannon wouldn't last so long with all those Heartless parading in town!" Cid said.

Yuffie giggled. "Yeah! Good luck!"

"I hope you find your friends."

"Look out for each other. Keep your spirits up." With Leon's last words, the Trio walked out of the shop and out to the World Gates.

----

Yagh! Goofy and Donald are in the story! WhatavIdone?! Oh well. It was a nightmare typing Goofy's name. I keep misspelling his name as "Goody" or "Foogy"… Really weird phenomenon. Oh well.

Next up. 2 worlds in one! If you're wondering, Sora's still bound to come back to his real world… you know, where Donald and Goofy are still cartoons. Ahee, so watch out for that.

I'll be at home, waiting for my rocket and review alerts to come. Kyahahah! Bye!

05-27-04: I'm so sorry. I've finished this since April, but I keep putting off posting it. Xx I wish the few of you who were reading this before are still interested!


	9. Two Worlds

**Hand in Hand  
**_Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Disney and Square-Enix.  
__Pre-story note: Between the Stars and Waves is such a cool Rivermaya album. _

**Chapter IX : Two Worlds **

_**XXooOooOXoooXOooXXXXo**___

The first time I entered the Gummi Ship, the first thing I wanted to do was to jump around.

Of course, the chipmunks wouldn't let me. They were very obsessive about keeping the ship clean that they won't let me touch anything at all… What, it's not like I'm obsessed with eating gummi things like Tidus…

Well, now I know why the ship runs on smiles, like Donald told me—it's impossible not to feel happy inside that ship. At least, for me… everything just looked cool there.

They told me to pick our next destination. I actually just pointed to the world that catches my eye first: The very colorful Wonderland.

I never liked that place, though. As far as I can remember, I watched that movie when I was a kid and I never liked the characters there. The Queen's ugly. The walking cards are creepy. That Cheshire cat's creepier. The oversized gardens are very easy to get lost in (I had to give the talking flowers a ton of potions to grow taller just so I can have a good view…) and finally… we went through all that trouble collecting the stupid evidence… just to find out that Alice would be kidnapped anyways.

Ah well. I should have seen that coming a looong time ago. At least Alice is a lot cuter here than she is in real life…

I mean… my real life. Ah heck… I don't know which world I'm living in now.

So… here we go again on the gummi ship. Not touching anything. Boy, these chipmunks sure are touchy…

They let me pick the next destination again. I picked that green thing. They told me it was the Deep Jungle.

What? Just one jungle? And it's a world already? Well… that's pretty weird if you're actually seeing it.

I know, I know… I should have argued with Donald so that we'd both goof and crash the ship… but I never liked crashing. I had enough injuries skateboarding, thank you.

But… Donald goofed anyway and crashed the ship.

Gah. And Damn.

Oh well. We got into that tree house, rescued the gorilla from the tiger, met Tarzan, slid down a bunch of trees, met Jane and that Clayton guy, fought the tiger again, went to the boss gorilla, hopped on hippos, swung on vines, fought the tiger again (that thing doesn't know when to give up!!)… saw that Clayton got corrupted by the Heartless… fought him and a giant lizard… got thrown by a gorilla… and finally, climbed a bunch of rocks behind a waterfall, until we reached the Keyhole.

Wow. I never thought that the Keyhole would be so pretty.

And how cool it would feel to seal it.

Aaaaah.

And, hey, I got a gummi block, a really cool key chain, and the gorilla's trust for sealing the Keyhole.

(At least, the gorillas here don't smell so bad.)

_**XXooOooOXoooXOooXXXXo**___

I was amusing myself with the key chain, the "Jungle King", as I detached and re-attached it on the Keyblade. It was fun seeing the Keyblade morph, you know…

The chipmunks were making a lot of noise as they made sure that everything in the Gummi Ship was in perfect order. "Hey, Sora!" Donald suddenly yelled.

I looked up curiously at him and Goofy. "What? Do you want me to pick out the next world?"

"Uh… no. Ya see, for now, we can't recognize any other world… we just wanna warn ya, the next world's gonna be a purty tough one! Ahyuck" Goofy explained.

"Why? What's up next?" I asked.

The chipmunks pressed some buttons, and a screen appeared, showing a beige-ish building floating on a swirling cloud.

My eyes widened. I forgot we had to go there…

"The Coloseum!"

… and fight Dad.

_**XXooOooOXoooXOooXXXXo**___

Author's notes: WAAAAH! I'm so sorry sorry sorry! o' To the few readers out there, for not updating this as often as I should have. .

I lost my copy of the KH script… so I had to use a lot of AU abilities to come up with this…

Sorry for it for being short. I'm writing the next chapter fast as I can. Huhuhu….


	10. The Coliseum

**Hand in Hand **

By: zhakeena / Spare Change

Disclaimers: I don't own anything in the story so far. I'll tell you all when.

Warnings: partly AU, some OOC, a lot of Disney characters (hey, we gotta give 'em some air time, people!) and then some. Don't worry. A lot of Cloud, though.

Quick author's notes: I'm so sorry… ;; I've forgotten about this thing. I hope this still floats.

**The Coliseum **

The Gummi Ship's large gummy door opened as soon as the obsessive-compulsive chipmunks fiddled with the controls. "Okay people, step out slowly, we don't want any more Gummi blocks dented, ya hear?!" said the one without the big red nose, Chip, in his trademark squeaky voice.

Sora knew that the little critter was talking about him. He had only managed to successfully deform a good amount of Gummi blocks—one of the Gummi joysticks used for navigation when he tried helping out in driving, his Gummi chair, a Gummi window sill when he leaned on it, the Gummi floor of his quarters when he fell of his bed, and yes, even the Gummi toilet flusher after he ate bad Taquitos. It was rather hard to be a rough-and-tumble kind of kid in a place full that's practically _made _of gelatinous material. He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Yes, sir…" he muttered in irritation.

He felt Goofy's large gloved hand hit his back in assurance as soon as they stepped on the rough, stone floor of this so-called "World" composed only of one area. "Hyuk! Don' mind 'em so much, Sora! They don' hate ya or anythin'… they're just doin' their job!"

"Oh yeah? They looked pretty miffed when I wrecked the toilet flusher…" the boy replied.

He heard Donald say something almost incomprehensible. "Ah, phooey! They don't use the toilet anyway!... anyway, Sora, here's another world for you to seal."

"The—"

"Coliseum, yes," squawked the magician, nodding knowledgeably.

Sora stared at the large Roman columns standing by the large, wooden entrance of the battle arena. He had always wondered why Disney used the Roman Coliseum when it's supposed to 'house' characters based off of Greek Mythology. Oh well. It's not like most of the people who are going to watch his movie would have read up on Mythology…

"That is," he thought to himself, faltering slightly, "If I make it out of this one alive… or if I wake up… yeah… any minute now, I'll wake up…" He sighed. Donald and Goofy were already making their way towards the entrance. "Say, kid, you'd better hurry or we'll leave you behind!" said the duck.

"Oh. Right. Coming!" Sora sprinted towards the entrance and followed after them.

--

The hall looked very… old. Kind of like visiting a museum or the set of… Troy?

The only sources of light were torches hanging on the walls and sunlight that peered through the cracks of the granite. There were square chunks of wood and metal hanging at the walls also, displaying names of previous competitors. Like Donald told him and Goofy, "Losers get wood and Winners get metal! We better not get wood!"

They reached the end of the hallway, where another large wooden door blocked their way to the outside. Sora stepped back in shock when he saw the figure standing by and scribbling some notes on a piece of wood.

The figure noticed his appalled look and frowned. "What's the matter? Ain't seen a Centaur before?" he said in annoyance.

Sora bit his lip. _It's… really a man-goat… gross… but I shouldn't be surprised, I guess… I mean, I've been hanging out with a talking duck and a Goofy for a while now… _

The man-goat turned to the three of them and eyed them suspiciously before saying in an uneasy drawl, "So… gentlemen? What can I do for ya?"

"Uh… we was wonderin'… if ya seen any Key-holes around here?" Goofy asked, and then flinched when Donald elbowed him painfully at the side.

"Key-holes? Yeah, know about them, but ain't got time for them. Not with all the baddies sprouting out of nowhere and joinin' the competition here," said the man-goat, getting back to drawing things on his wood-chunk.

"Baddies?" asked Donald. "Ya don't mean…"

"Yeah, baddies. You think the tournaments are bad enough with all the lions and those things from the Underworld, but noooo! Hades comes in with his ugly blue head and enlists those Heartless things to fight!" the Centaur paused in his drawing, erased some things and resumed his scribbling. "Sure, more Heartless means more competition and entertainment, but so far, no new players had been able to beat 'em. Only my kid Herc's been able to come out to the top, unharmed."

"Ya mean Hercules? He fights here, too?" Goofy asked.

"Well… yeah… occasionally." He tapped his pencil on his noggin, as if in deep thought. "But when he isn't fighting 'em, the Heartless gets out of the Coliseum and harasses the Prometheans and Spartans who usually just come over to watch…"

"Oh! You mean there's actually something _outside _the Arena?" asked Sora.

The Centaur raised an eyebrow at him. "Sure there is! What are you, stupid? Where do ya think we get the audience, huh?"

He shrank back. "Sorry," he said meekly.

Donald shook his head. "Sounds bad. So, Sora, you up for a fight?" he asked, turning to him.

"Me?" Sora asked, pointing to himself in mild surprise.

"Him?!" asked the Centaur, apparently more surprised than him. "A kid barely in his teens? Not to be mean or anything, Spiky, but even Herc sometimes has a hard time killing those things…" he sneered, shaking his head. "Just… forget it. Go home before one of the Heartless beats the bajeezus out of you."

"Hey! I've beaten a few Heartless on the way here, goat-man!" Sora snapped. _Geez, this goat's more annoying in real life than in his flick… _

"Oh yeah?" Apparently, Goat-man wasn't convinced.

"Sure did! Look at his weapon here! Ahyuck…" said Goofy, pointing to Sora's Keyblade as he brandished it around proudly. "That thing picked him, ya know."

"Hmm." Goat-man peered at the weapon closer, examining it if it were genuine or not. "Say, that ain't a bad-looking weapon ya got there, kid… you know how to use it?"

Sora felt a vein ready to burst in his forehead. "O… Of course I do! That's why I have it!"

"If that's the case," said Goat-man, inspecting the hallway and running over to the corner to get a barrel standing there harmlessly, "Why don't you bust this barrel? And don't just whack it. Do it… _artistically._"He said the word 'artistically' with a flourish.

"Kay! That's easy," said the boy, going into battle stance. Raising the Key-blade, he started running towards the barrel. In a matter of swings in 5.32 seconds, the barrel was reduced to nothing less than sawdust. "Hah! Beat that, baby!" he said victoriously.

Donald and Goofy clapped, but Goat-man had this unimpressed look on his face. "Hmn. Not bad, not bad, kid."

"What? Whaddya mean not bad?!"

"Well, let's see. First of all, you didn't prepare yourself properly. If it were a hundred barrels, you'd be too cramped up to bust 50," he explained as if he were a judge in a singing talent show a la _Midgarian Idol _or something. "Another thing, I specifically told ya to do it _artistically_! I didn't see no artsy stuff in yer moves back there, kid! All you did was jump and swing that thing as if it was a baseball bat!"

Sora scratched his head sheepishly. "Eh…"

"But I'll tell ya what ya have, kid. Potential," said Goat-man, wiping his fingernails against his bare tummy before offering his hand. "Name's Philoctetes, but ya can call me Phil. What about you, kid?"

"Ah… Sora," he replied uneasily, looking at the hand first before taking it in a handshake. "And those two are—"

"Donald Duck and Goofy. Yeah, I know. Herc's been telling me about you two and about how he sees you on TV," said Phil, shaking their hands.

"Oh, really? Ahyuck! Whaddya know," said Goofy. Sora, however, got sort of confused. "Huh? TV? I thought you worked for royalty, not for the media," he said in total bafflement.

Donald shrugged. "What can I tell ya, Sora. That's what King Mickey's Kingdom does—spread happiness all around. Me and Goofy here have a talent for making people laugh—"

"Ya could say that besides actin' funny, we look funny—"

"Yeah, so at one point in our lives, yeah, we were actors. But now that we're more mature, we have a greater mission… and that is, to save worlds," finished Donald, nodding proudly.

_Yeah. At one point of my life, I was an actor too, _thought Sora in dismay. "But… who do you, er… 'spread happiness' to? How come this 'Herc' person knows about you when he's from here?"

The two shrugged. "Hercules is a god. He and them other Olympians are King Mickey's communication to other worlds. That's how they're aware of the other worlds' existence."

"Oooh."

Phil was already tapping one foot in impatience. "Well, are ya done with that? Can I talk to the next champeen yet?"

"Champeen?"

"He meant Champion."

"Oh."

"Anyway, kid, look over here," said Phil, taking the wood-chunk he was scribbling stuff on, "I was makin' this strategy for Herc to use if he's gonna fight 10 Heartless at a time, see? I want ya to study this," he said, pushing the wood-chunk in Sora's hands. The 14-year-old stared bug-eyed at it. "Oh… okay," he replied weakly.

"And I'll train ya good! Barrels first, then we take on Heartless. Wait til the guys hear about this—the next hero, a scrawny kid like you!" The Centaur was already visualizing his victory party.

Barrels? Sounds boring. If Sora must do it, he shouldn't be doing it by himself. "Hey! If I'm gonna beat anyone, those two are supposed to help me, right?"

"Oh, sure, but you'll go through barrel training by yourself."

"Say what?! But…"

"The duck's a court magician and the dog's a general, for cripe's sake. They don't need to prove anything. You, however, my young, spiky-haired friend, may be young, budding, brash and all that crap… but still lack in the experience department," he said, patting the insulted Sora's shoulder. "So, shall we get this party started?"

--

"Faster, kid! Let's see some sawdust!"

Sora ground his teeth in frustration. He had already gone through this annoying barrel course for… 13 tries now, he was already and he _still _didn't beat the stupid time limit… and those damned animals/animal hybrids are watching him go through it each and every time. _Stupid barrels stupid barrels stupid barrels stupid barrels stupid barrels… _

"Time's up! Ahyuck"

"HAAA!" Sora managed to hit the last barrel off the platform. It flung haplessly towards the audience bleachers where it burst into little bitty scraps of wood.

"Yo, kid, you're a second off, but I'll let that slip," said Phil, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "Just remember that a second's difference is enough for a Heartless to turn the tables on you and eat your face."

"I'm not gonna learn anything by hitting barrels, am I? They aren't even moving!" shouted Sora across the arena.

"Yeah. That's why you've graduated from barrel basher to Heartless basher trainee," said Phil, waddling towards him with Donald and Goofy trailing behind. "But since it's a sissy game—you only fight for 5 rounds—don't expect a large crowd or anythin', so I don't expect ya to get stage fright. All of 'em are gonna arrive once we put the tough contenders in."

"What do these 'tough contenders' look like?" Donald squawked.

"Let's see. According to the schedule…" Phil scanned the large black board with chalk scrawls in Greek all over it. "Hm. We only got one of 'em today… a human at that. Not a god, or a demon, or a Heartless…"

"Uh… who is it?" Goofy asked.

Sora flinched. He didn't read Greek, but that scrawl was pretty clear to him, since it was written in the Roman alphabet:

_Cloud Strife _

--

Hades, lord of the Underworld, was in one of the shadier parts of the arena, smoking a cigar. "Phew… needed that. Stupid no-smoking regulations in the arena… Sheesh. Like it would catch fire, with all the spell-casters casting Firaga everywhere…" he muttered in annoyance. He turned to the man who was eyeing the small population of people taking their seats on the bleachers. "Yo. Want a smoke? Looks like you could use one."

The man didn't reply, nor did he turn to the god.

"Geez. I feel like I'm talkin' to a wall here…" Hades blew out a circle of smoke that eventually disappeared before it hit the person he was speaking to. "So… you've seen the kid yet?"

He eyed the brown-haired youth dodging a blow from one of the ant-like critters. The Key-blade in the teen's hands shone under the sunlight; it was rather… interesting. "Yeah."

"So… what do you think?"

"Too easy," he turned away from the show, his cape swishing behind him as he walked. "Almost not worth it. Why would you wanna get rid of a kid? You're the god of the underworld, for the love of…"

"Hey! Who's the boss and who's the hitman here?" Hades threw the cigar over his shoulder. It disappeared in a puff of black, sinister-looking smoke. "Look, we got an agreement, pally. You kill all the people I want, I help you search for whatever—or in this case, whoever it is you're searching. And if I want you to kill a kid, you kill a kid, or the deal's off, and you get to take a dip in the river Styx. I hope we're clear with that, Cloud."

Cloud closed his eyes in annoyance and contemplation. The lord of the underworld smirked at his reaction. "I suggest you better gear up, Mr. Strife. I think you're up next."

He didn't say another word when he went out of the room.

Hades shook his head. "What a stiff. Well… just in case his goody-goody side comes out…" He eyed the caged part of the arena, where three pairs of sinister-looking eyes were glaring everywhere. "I think I'll go buy popcorn. This is gonna be a great show." He stepped out of the room as the announcers shouted out, "And that's the killing blow, ladies and gents! Once again, our new challenger Sora wins!"

--

Sora victoriously hopped over to his companions and self-appointed trainer, who congratulated him gleefully. "Nice, kid! I taught ya well, didn't I?"

Sora gave him a sour look. "All you made me do was kill those stupid barrels…"

"Hey! That's what ya call training! Why, you wouldn't be that speedy if you didn't do it!"

"Sora, you blasted them back there! Wawawark!" squeaked Donald proudly.

"Ahyuck! Told ya ya didn't need our help back there. Huhuhuhoo!" Goofy snorted as he scratched his nose.

The few spectators who were present during the last 4 rounds craned their necks to get a closer look at Sora. He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, well… like Phil said, they weren't dangerous monsters, so it's really a piece of pie… I think I can ace this and win the cup!"

"Rule # 65, kid. Don't get so cocky!" Phil whacked him over the head.

"Ow!" Sora cried in pain.

"Now pay attention! Here, drink this electrolyte solution here… should keep you going… good thing we get a 15-minute intermission," said the Centaur, tossing him a bottle. Sora caught it and gratefully took a swig. _Hmm. Tropical punch. _"Now just regenerate while I go scope out the competition…" With that, he waddled off.

"So, Sora, ya really think ya can win this?" Goofy asked, his eyes wider than ever.

He just shrugged. "Well… sure. I'm supposed to if we're gonna get out of here," he replied coolly.

"Yeah, but…" Donald squawked, "We aren't supposed to be participatin' in tournaments! We're supposed to be looking for keyholes," he whispered.

Sora smirked. "Trust me. We're gonna find the keyhole once we win this."

"How sure are ya, anyway?"

"Very."

"Hmm…" Goofy touched his chin thoughtfully. "If I din't know any better, I'd say ya know _where _the key holes are…" He and Donald looked at him suspiciously. He faltered. "Eh…. No. Intuition. Comes with being the Key-blade master…. Y'know… heheh," he said, grinning stupidly.

Still narrowing their eyes, the two paused when Phil came galloping towards them frantically. "Yo! Kid! I saw the next guy yer up against! And believe me, it ain't no love parade!"

"What are ya talkin' about?" asked Donald.

"The guy's a FREAK! Got that freaky wing and that freaky claw… And he's carrying a huge-ass sword with him! Man!" At the sound of the word _huge-_ass, Sora frowned in disbelief, but because it didn't seem to affect anybody else, he just let it pass. The Centaur wiped his brow free of perspiration. "I'm tellin' ya kid, ya ain't ready for this guy. It ain't a fair fight. He isn't fit to be _first-time _material," he said in a panicky manner.

"So… we just forfeit? Jus' like that?" asked Goofy.

"If ya want junior here to live, yeah."

The three of them eyed Sora questioningly. Ultimately, after all, the decision lies with him. He just shrugged at them nonchalantly. "I'm fighting."

"… eh? Kid, I don't think I've told you how _freaky_ this guy looks. I mean, he's a walking freak show! People would pay to see him!" Phil started waving his hands in frustration.

"Yeah… but I just have a good feeling, you know?"

"A. Good_. Feeling?!?!?!?!? _That's it?!"

Donald and Goofy looked at him worriedly. He just winked. "Like I told Goofy and Donald. Intuition. Comes with being a key-blade master."

"Intermission's over, folks! Get your butts back on your seats and the show will start again!" the announcers boomed.

"Well, gotta go. Thanks for the punch," he tossed the bottle back to the Centaur and coolly walked towards the field.

"Okay, but I'm not responsible for yer corpse, ya hear?! I warned ya!"

The growing crowd behind him cheered.

_-- _

_Believe me… I don't wanna go through this myself… _

_But if I don't… _

_Who knows what'll happen to him? Hades might take him to the underworld, no questions asked… and then what…? It's gonna be hell. _

_I'm not letting that happen to my dad. No way. _

--

"And now, our rising star for the day, Sora, will have a showdown with resident cold-blooded mercenary man Cloud Strife, representing the lord of the underworld Hades' side! Will our teen challenger even hope to survive against this one? This announcer doesn't think so! Good luck, kid! And remember, we ain't responsible for anything, ya hear?!"

Sora gave the announcer a look. "Aw, man?! Even the announcers are against me?!... well, I don't blame them," he thought as he faced Cloud.

The mercenary looked at him coldly. His trademark Buster Sword, now looking more deadly because of the bloodied bandages wrapped randomly around it, was held in one hand. He swung it once, as if to taunt him. Sora swallowed hard. In that instant, he knew… _This guy. He's not my dad in any way at all. _

"And let… the battle…. Begin!" A horn sounded of somewhere, signaling the start of their fight.

All it took was one look. One glance at Sora's eyes before Cloud charged all-out. The boy barely dodged his attack. He rolled on the side. "Yeow!" Sora screamed.

The mercenary ran towards him and swung his sword at him, managing to cut off some of the ends of the boy's spikes. "Sora! Defense!" shouted Phil from the sides. Donald and Goofy were biting their fingers (gloved or feathered) in excitement.

"Defense! Defense!" the new Sora supporters cheered from the side.

"How the heck am I gonna do that?! All I'm doing is running around…" he thought in panic. _Panic panic panic panic! _

Cloud just barely missed hitting Sora again. "Is that the best you can do, kid? You're in a tournament." He swung his blade again, but Sora this time managed to block the blow with the Key Blade.

They lingered in that position. The audience and announcers all "ooh"ed at that.

"Not bad," said Cloud, but he instantly struck again. Sora barely jumped away from the attack. His arm was damaged. "AaaH!" he screamed.

_This can't be! _He thought in panic. He didn't anticipate this—his arm had a clean cut on it, and it was losing blood fast. _I'm… bleeding?! _

Cloud paused. He dropped his sword-wielding arm at the side and flipped his hair. "Now you know who you're up against." He assumed battle stance and charged at Sora again.

With little time to be alert, Sora managed to block the blow again. But Cloud kicked him at the side, which sent him rolling to the edge of the stage. The audience flinched with him, but now Sora knew that he had to be alert. _I guess this isn't in the script. He's really gonna kill me. _

As Cloud stepped towards him, Sora jumped up and sent two big-shoed feet at the mercenary's face. This, of course, surprised Cloud a bit. He stepped back. "Oh yeah! Tech I learned from Riku!" gloated Sora.

"Hmph." Cloud wiped the back of his hand against his face. "So you can fight. Let's go."

"Huh?!" Before Sora knew it, the man whom he looked up as father no more started glowing. Small, electric sparks formed around him before his wing sprouted to life. With that, Cloud started flying full-speed towards him. Caught off-guard, Sora still managed to block a sword-strike, but he was thrown back a few steps. Cloud was preparing for another strike.

"Damn…!!!" Sora thought in panic. He closed his eyes and braced himself for another strike. He knew he wouldn't be able to block the next move, but…

"FIRE!"

A small blast of fire hit Cloud, singeing his arm in the process. His eyes widened dangerously before he lowered himself on the ground. Suddenly there was a dog shielding the kid and a duck, having just finished casting the spell, glared at him furiously.

"Ladies and gents, it seems that we have new players ready for some beating!"

Sora opened his eyes and found Goofy a few steps in front of him. "You guys?! What are you doing here?!"

"This guy's gonna kill you, for cripe's sake, Sora! We ain't gonna stand by and watch!" said Donald, his incomprehensible speech a notch higher. He faced Cloud again. "So, ya big palooka! Show me whatcha got!"

"I got yet back, Donald! Ahyuck…" said Goofy, going into battle stance.

"The new players are _mad, _folks! This supposedly calls for a disqualification, but for the sake of entertainment, let's check out what happens! Are the scales balanced now that the magician and the soldier joined the fight, or is it just one futile attempt to take down the mercenary? I think it's the latter, folks!" The announcer guy said, encouraging some hoots and boos from the audience.

Cloud frowned, more in annoyance than anything else. "This is a waste of time…" he muttered before doing something unexpected again—he raised his claw and started forming a ball of black energy around it. Sora, Donald and Goofy's eyes widened in fright. "The heck?!" they cried out in unison.

"Gravija." The spell hit Donald and Goofy. Pure force crushed them to the ground, leaving them incapacitated and groaning in pain. Sora stepped back as Cloud stepped forward. "You're next, kid." He swung his sword menacingly again.

"Dammit!" Sora stared at the unmoving bodies of Goofy and Donald. He wasn't sure if they were still breathing or not. "Did you kill them?!" Now it was pretty clear to him: this isn't a show or a game. People and things he previously referred to as mere _cartoon characters _could bleed… and even die.

"I hope I did. Don't worry, you're up next." Cloud struck him again with the sword. His shoulder was hit—the new rush of blood to the surface stained his white sleeve. Sora screamed in pain. Another slash at the arm.

The boy dropped the Key-blade, unable to hold onto it any longer. Drops of blood hit the ground.

The audience hooted in excitement. "Ladies and gents, Sora dropped his weapon! He looks pretty messed up! But Cloud, our man, is unfazed! What kind of cold-blooded killer could do that to a kid? Looks like he isn't gonna let him live!"

"Give up yet?" said Cloud coldly as he barely missed stabbing Sora in the gut.

"Daaah!" yelled Sora. He fell to the side again. _Man… I gotta think… I can't die here! No way! _

"I have to kill you…" muttered the mercenary. His blue eyes glowed dangerously down on Sora.

_What do I do? Do I psych him out or something? _Sora shut his eyes and took a deep breath before saying, "Cloud! Wait! Listen to me first!"

Surprisingly, Cloud paused for a short moment. He shook his head in disbelief and smirked. "I have a job to do," he said, raising his bandaged sword another time.

"Cloud!" Sora felt very awkward calling this man that. "You don't have to do this! Hades is messing with your mind! AH!" He rolled away from another sword stab.

"Shut up," said Cloud. He charged at Sora yet again.

_Dammit! This guy definitely isn't my dad! _Sora thought to himself as he bit his lower lip in frustration. He jumped up and blocked another blow. "Cloud! You gotta open your eyes! Hades is tricking you!" he cried as Cloud's sword's hilt hit him on the shoulder.

Cloud glared at him. "You don't need to preach me about my decision. I made it on my own."

"But, da—I mean, Cloud! How could you trust the lord of the underworld to help you find Ae…" Sora trailed off. At the mention of the last word (or at least part of it), Cloud froze in mid-strike. His eyes widened. "What did you say?" his tone was very low and even more dangerous.

Sora breathed hard, stood up and faced him with a fierce determination in his eyes. The crowd fell silent, still in awe that Sora managed to make Cloud stop fighting, even for a little while. Goofy and Donald, waking up from being KO'd (but still pretty messed up), looked up at him in wonder. He closed his eyes first before continuing. "Yeah… that's what I said…. Your light."

Cloud held his sword in one hand in a passive manner. "You don't know anything about my light."

"I know _everything _about your light, Cloud." Sora said, not breaking eye contact with him. _I've known her… all my life…_

"And I know that you wouldn't find your light like this. You'll just end up killing yourself."

The mercenary fell silent. He contemplated on Sora's words for a moment. But just when Sora thought he was sold, he smirked suddenly. "Maybe… maybe so. But…" He raised his sword again. "I trust Hades. He's a god. Gods don't break deals. He'll bring me back to her… and if I fail here, I'd rather rot in Hell than live not forgiven."

Sora froze.

"So… I'll have to kill you. It's taken too long already…" Without further ado, he charged at the boy again and successfully stabbed him on the shoulder. Sora screamed in pain.

"Why I oughta--!!" Donald jumped up and cast a fire spell at Cloud. He just blocked it with a sword and retaliated with an even worse fire spell.

Goofy tossed a potion at Sora. "Drink up, Sora, before you get killed!"

Sora felt his arm going numb. So that was how it felt bleeding to death… but when he got a hold of the potion and started drinking up, he was amazed at how quick his wounds healed. So… that was how it was.

But when he looked up again, he only saw Goofy being thrown out of the ring by Cloud, making him land in a pile on the charred Donald. Cloud gave him another cold glare. "It's taken too long already…" he repeated, and with his claw, he lifted Sora by his neck. The part of the crowd who had their bets placed on Cloud started shouting, "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

Sora choked. He felt Cloud's mangled hand begin to crush his windpipe… _I'm gonna die gonna die gonna die _

But before he did, Cloud's grip loosened. He opened one eye warily, and found out that this man who looks like his father was gently lowering him to the ground. When he let go, Sora stumbled on the floor and started coughing.

His eyes tearing up, he looked up at Cloud, who was shaking himself violently. He could almost hear his thoughts, all messed up and deadly: _This kid has nothing to with me I must do this for her he kind of looks like her what is wrong with me the voices are talking again he's laughing again mocking me mocking me this kid has nothing to do with me with her with him he musn't… musn't… _

"Da…d?" Sora thought in wonder as he watched this man crumble without warning in front of him.

--

At one of the hidden seats in the Coliseum, Hades shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Geez… I knew that guy would chicken out at the last minute… loser… these humans are all the same." He sighed, took a sip from his bottle of Herculade, and snapped two blue fingers.

A loud roar echoed throughout the stadium. He smirked.

"Well… Another rule from the goat man. Accidents happen."

--

Notes: Cloud is such a bastard in this chapter… like how I imagined him to be. Ah well.

And yes, a lot of interaction with Disney characters. I can't help it, people, it's a big part of the story! And besides, Hercules is one of the few animated Disney flicks I enjoyed, songs and all that (Ya gotta love Hades. He's cool.)… even though I was pretty miffed in the game when Hercules touched Cloud's butt, and had me believing that Herc must be one of the fruity-boy types of Greek gods. Heheh.

I know you got a question in your mind: If Cloud was massacring Sora in front of a crowd, why isn't anybody doing anything? No mistake there; in the Coliseum, you actually watch people get mangled by lions, or soldiers, or centurions—and you are expected to enjoy it. Yes… people who go to the Coliseum are pretty morbid people, that they are… XD

My brain got really clouded with all the Cloudiness of this chapter… you see, this line was part of my first draft of this chapter:

"Cloud! You don't need darkness to find your light! That just doesn't make sense; in fact, it's kind of idiotic when you think about it!"

So, you see how stupid I felt back then. Sorry if this chapter isn't so spectacular… I'm so uninspired lately…


End file.
